Serendipity
by Cinderellakai16
Summary: Sakura is a 16 year-old girl with dreams and great friends, and expectations. But, what happens when the oh-so arrogant boy of her dreams has taken a sudden interest in her crazy life? AU Highschool fic. SasuXSaku. Rated T for now. RATING MAY CHANGE LATER
1. Clumsy

_Man, Math suuuucks…,_ Sakura Haruno thought lazily, not really trying to pay attention to her Geometry teacher, Maito Gai. Her chin was placed in her hand and her elbow propped on her desk, with her brilliant green eyes slightly hooded in her bored state. The black board some three rows in front of her was covered in logarithms, equations, triangles, and sayings like; "Math is good!" or "Math is the center of youth!". Yeah. OK. Maito-sensei was in front of it in his forest green suit and bright orange tie, scratching more things on the board with white chalk.

In a way, fourth period Geometry was like a forty-eight minute acid trip. With Gai dressing him-self and his classroom in bright, contrasting, ugly colors, usually boring extremely long words were made psychedelic by his loud, sometimes frightening voice, and the odd shapes all around the room really topped it off. For some of the students, it really was a good high.

"Woah… dude…" the guy to her left whispered in dazed amazement. She turned her head lazily to face him. He had a gaze that was similar to hers, except that he a goofy smile on his face and his hands were underneath his desk fiddling with a Zippo. She recognized him instantly as the druggie senior she sat next to everyday. Deidara was his name? Oh, yeah… He was part of one the 'bad boys' gangs. Akatsuki? Yeah. They were notorious for doing drugs. Ino, who was the school's gossip queen, (and Sakura's best friend) had told her once. But, that was only because she had dated Deidara their freshman year.

Sakura sneezed. God, she hated chalk.

Maito-sensei suddenly burst in enthusiasm; "Pythagoreans! We _love _Pythagoreans people! Now, when solving…" _blah, blah, blah. _Jeez, no wonder she was failing. Sakura jumped out of her math-induced reverie when a note unexpectedly landed on her desk. Staring down at it, her eyes fully open now, she saw that it was from Ino. The loopy cursive of her handwriting spelled out Sakura's name, ending with a quick heart after it. She unfolded it underneath her desk:

_Check out the new meat. You'll thank me later! 3_

_Love, Ino._

_(P.S. He's sitting in front Hinata. You can't miss him!)_

_New meat, huh?, _Sakura thought. _Must be good. _She turned in her seat and raised her eyes to Ino's in the back of the room. Ino gave her a thumbs up and then went back to gazing lovingly at the back Sai's head. Sai was her latest victi- er, crush.

Sakura picked up her pencil, positioned it over her left shoulder, and began absently tapping it against her neck. She tilted her head to the side as if in interest towards the front of the room, twisting her lips in a funny expression. Then she "accidentally" dropped her pencil on the tiled floor of the classroom.

Bending over her desk, she acted as though to retrieve the pencil. Instead she reached for it and glanced up at Hinata who was in the row directly to the left of Sakura. In front of her was…

_The most gorgeous teenage boy she'd ever seen. _

Before this guy had shown up, there had been that pot-for-brains Deidara right next to her, and then an empty desk, and then her beautiful friend, Hinata.

Now, there was a god sitting in that once empty desk. He had spiky jet black hair and it looked like he didn't take any time to arrange it. Like he just rolled out of bed. His black T-shirt fit snugly to his _very_ muscular upper body. His biceps bugled with power and were maybe the size of her head. His pecs were perfectly defined and she was willing to bet there was a sick-pack underneath that black cotton. His Levi's were ripped open at the knees and faded, and had several stains on them, which Sakura recognized as grease. His shoes were scuffed up combat boots and were stretched out way past the end of his desk.

That was when she realized he was over six feet tall.

_Jeez, _she thought_. He must have to fold himself in half to get into that desk…. _She glanced up at his beautiful face. Dark eyebrows set over dark eyes that had just a hint of blue to them. His skin was pale, but not sickly.

Suddenly, he turned his head towards the clock at the other end of the classroom. As he did so, she noticed a metallic glint come off his face.

_Oh my god…,_ she thought, dumbfounded. He had a silver stud in his left eyebrow. _He's amazing…. _She loved piercings for some odd reason. Her friends often told her it was weird that she always liked guys with piercings, but she never really cared.

_That's probably the reason Ino pointed him out…_

Konoha was a goody-goody small town so none of the guys here had peircings. So basically, this guy was a God-send for Sakura.

Suddenly, she noticed she was ogling the dude in the middle of class and quickly shook her head. In her star-struck state, her pencil had rolled towards the heart-throb and out of her reach.

Not thinking, she leaned forward more and stretched her hand farther. A booted foot entered her peripheral vision and landed on her pencil. The leg attached to the foot pulled the pencil underneath a desk, where a long-fingered hand reached down and picked it up.

She looked up and stared dumbly at the god of a teenage boy who was now holding her pink pencil.

Then, he did something that made her heart skip a beat and her face turn the color of her hair.

He smiled at her.

No, no, wait! He didn't smile. He _smirked _at her.

It was a casual twist of his perfect lips, with just a hint of arrogance. His eyes were hooded and he held up her pencil in front of his face. OK, at first she thought he was gorgeous. Now, she thought he was simply _beautiful._

He was the perfect combination of bad-boy rebel and beautiful male. Sakura had died and gone to heaven.

"Is this yours?" He whispered to her, smirk still in place. His voice was melodious. It reminded her of melted chocolate tumbling over smooth vanilla ice cream. _Yummy…_

Sakura jumped out of a reverie for the second time that class period, after realizing she was gaping at him, and quickly nodded her head.

"Um… yeah." she said, straightening in her seat and pushing her pink hair behind her ear, blushing harder all the while.

_Damn, she's cute,_ Sasuke thought to himself. His smirk grew wider.

He extended the pencil towards her and Sakura took it delicately with her much smaller, manicured hand.

"Thanks…" she said timidly, looking at the floor.

"No problem. I'm always lookin' to help out a pretty girl."

Her head snapped up at him in surprise. "I..uh…"

He folded his hands behind his head and winked at her.

Sakura was still trying to figure out something to say, _anything_, when, suddenly, the bell rang, signaling the end of class. She barely registered Maito-sensei's voice.

"Okay, people! Page 186, problems one through fifteen, due on my desk as soon as class starts tomorrow! Have a great day!"

Sakura blushed harder at the still smirking boy who slowly un-folding himself from his desk and turned around to gather up her Geometry book and binder.

_Oh my God… I can't believe what just happened. _

Sakura wasn't surprised when Ino's abdomen came into view on her right.

"What I tell ya?" She said grinning. "He's so your type, yeah?"

"Most definitely!" Sakura exclaimed, still reeling over the encounter. "He's gorgeous. Who _is_ he Ino?" Sakura picked up her stuff and slipped out of her desk.

"TenTen's in his English class and she told me his name's Sasuke Uchiha." Ino said, walking toward the classroom door. Sakura followed her and the two best friends stepped out into the crowded hallway, chattering all the way. "I saw your little encounter. Did the pencil thing?" Ino said, opening her locker and putting her glittery pink binder in and pulling out her tote bag. She waggled her eyebrows at Sakura suggestively.

"Yeah." Sakura said dreamily. "I was just gonna check him out and it turned out _sooooo_ much better! I mean, he _smiled _at me _and_ called me pretty!" She was glowing, she was sure of it. Sure, a lot of boys had asked her out and told she was pretty. And sure, she had a couple of boyfriends. But, none of them could compare to that beautiful hunk of ass that had picked up her pencil not even ten minutes ago.

"Yeah, he was soooo checking your goods, girl!" Ino grinned. She fished her car keys out of her bag and began walking away. "Sai and me are gonna have lunch together, so I gotta jet. Love you girl!" She waved and walked down the stairs and out of sight.

"Yeah…" Sakura said to herself, leaning against the row of lockers to her right. Suddenly the bell rang, signaling the beginning of her fifth period class and Ino's lunch hour. She gasped. "I'm gonna be late!"

Sakura took off down the hall her messenger bag banging against her hip. She ran down the stairs and two doors down the west wing and burst into her fifth period art class.

"I'm here, Shumutzu-sensei!" Sakura yelled as soon as the door was open. She froze with her hand on the door knob as she realized what she had just done.

The teacher had a hand raised and her mouth was open as though she had been addressing the class. The rest of the class was now staring at her and several were snickering. The teacher chuckled.

"How nice of you to join us, Sakura." she said, smiling good-naturedly. "Please take your seat, kay?"

Sakura blushed furiously. "S-sorry…"

Sakura aimed to sit down in her normal seat, but stopped dead short when she realized someone was sitting in her seat. _A very god-like someone. _

This time, instead of ogling him, she got upset.

_What the fuck? That's __my__ assigned seat! _Sakura marched forward, stomping her feet for presence. She stopped next to him and cleared her throat with her hand on her hip. He didn't even look at her. _That ass! How dare he-_

"Oh, Sakura!" Shumutzu-sensei said. "Sorry for not saying anything before, but I switched up the seating chart a little since we have a new student. Mr. Uchiha now has your old seat and you'll be sitting to the left of him from now on. Be sure to help him get used to our rules and such, kay?" Shumutzu- sensei went back to addressing the class.

_Great, just freaking brilliant._ Sakura sighed and plunked down in the seat nest to Sasuke.

The way the art room was set up is that there were two rows of double-wide drafting desks and high stools to sit on. The drafting desks were high off the floor and allowed two people to sit next to each other at each desk. Usually, the person next to you was your partner. The school was short on supplies and so you had to share _everything._ Pencils, erasers, colored pencils, _breathing space._

Before this dude had shown up, Sakura had been the only person without a partner. And, to tell the truth, she quite liked it that way.

Sakura, turned and made sure he wasn't looking at her, and then openly glared at him.

_Stupid, arrogant, pencil-retrieving, seat-stealing, so-called knight-in-shining-armor!_

To make things worse, Sakura's pink razor began vibrating in her back pocket with a text message. Curious, she whipped it out underneath the huge desk and read a message from her Mom:

_Sakura, I need u to perform 2nite, have a meeting 6 with board of res. _

_Luv, Mommy! 3_

Sakura groaned. Just peachy.

Sakura's family owned a five-star restaurant in downtown Konoha, which there was a huge stage in front of the dining tables which showcased different entertainment every night. Sakura hated performing on that damn stage even though she had been doing so ever since she was six.

Sakura was a great singer. She loved doing it. When she was little, her mother would dress her up in little outfits and set her out on stage as the opening act. Back then she bounced around with a microphone and sang Disney songs. Now, her mother was encouraging her to wear sexy-looking dresses and shoes, and sing Christina Aguilera songs. That was NOT what she wanted. Rather, she would like to be in the kitchens with their sweet Russian cook, Tatiana, and be cutting chunks of chicken and reading medical texts.

Sakura smacked her forehead down on the desk top in frustration. Her cell phone, forgotten in her hand, crashed to the floor. Luckily, no one had heard it, since class had officially started and everyone was talking about the new art project. Sakura got on her hands and knees underneath the desk and retrieved the phone and battery, which had popped out upon impact. She put the battery back in it's cartridge and aimed to get up, when-

"Hey, your name's Sakura, right?" A male familiar male voice said.

"Wha-" Bonk. "OW!" Upon hitting her head, Sakura's eyes squeezed shut and she plunked back down to the floor on her butt, cell phone still in hand. She rubbed her head in agitation. "Ow… that hurt." Sakura pulled her self up and sat down on her stool, still rubbing her pink head in agitation. She turned to Sasuke. "Did you say something?"

He snorted. He didn't laugh, didn't smile, didn't even ask if she was alright. No, he smirked at her and snorted. "Nope. Get your ears chick."

Sakura gaped at him. _What an asshole. Forget it. I'm so not crushing on you. _She shook her head angrily and turned to pick up her art pencil, only to realize that _he_ had it. Just perfect.

Oh, golly what a day this will be….


	2. Take a Bow

Hi! This is Chapter Two! By the way, this fic is NOT for Karin lovers or Itachi lovers. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against either of them, it's just they NEED to be be bad in this fic.

Reviews would be love!

* * *

_The end-of-the-period bell finally rang as the digital clock's numbers changed to 3:00 PM. Sakura jumped up excitedly, grabbing her books and practically bolting out the door of her eighth period class. _

_This wasn't normal, seeing as her eighth period class was her favorite and she was usually the last one out the door because she would stop and talk to her favorite teacher, Tsunade for about twenty minutes after school while waiting for the bus. More often than not, Sakura would end up walking the four miles home because she had dallied too long. Sakura was the only student deemed privileged enough to call Tsunade by her first name, which often made Sakura smile smugly at the most annoying of Tsunade's students, Karin. _

_You see, Karin and Sakura had a mostly one-sided rivalry from day one of that school year. Mind you, it was mid-October now, so for the past month and a half, Karin had been mooching up to Tsunade, trying to teacher's-pet her way to being the top medical science student. Unlike Sakura, who actually did her homework and genuinely liked Tsunade. Sakura didn't know what disillusioned Karin into believing that if she worshiped Tsunade and didn't do her work that it would somehow get her a good college recommendation, but once Karin found out that Sakura was allowed to call the teacher by her first name, Karin hated her with all her being. _

_Once their first progress-reports were posted on the classroom wall in late-September, Sakura found that she had an A- and that Karin had- not surprisingly- an F. To Sakura's amusement, Karin threw a fit worthy of a two-year-old right in the middle of class. She all but screamed at Tsunade that this was a mistake and that the grade book must be screwed up, because she had been doing a bang-up job for all she knew. _

_Tsunade merely crossed her arms and said; "I'm sorry Karin, it's not a mistake. I haven't received homework from you for three weeks." _

_At this remark, Karin pretended to be completely appalled, and stomped her way back to her seat. _

_She may as well have sealed her fate with a kiss. _

_From then on, Karin would openly glare at Sakura in the middle of class __instead_ of paying attention to the lecture.

Tsunade's head poked out her classroom door after her-admittedly- favorite student. "Woah, Sakura, girl! Where's the fire?" Sakura stopped and turned around to apologize for not explaining when another thought occurred to Tsuande. "Wait. You gotta perform tonight, right?"

Sakura blushed sheepishly and nodded. "Yeah… Mom has a meeting. I have to get home on time if I'm going to finish my homework before I go to the restaurant."

Tsunade smiled. "No problem, Sakura. I'll see you Monday, kay kiddo? Good luck!"

Sakura smiled back. "Thanks Tsunade! Have a good weekend." Sakura turned and ran down the hall, messenger bag bouncing, books in her hand.

Tsunade sighed and straightened, her hand still holding open the classroom door. That kid could really use a break.

Tsunade looked down the now deserted hallway. She could hear the buses rumbling as they toted children out of the school yard and she could hear her student-teacher, Shizune, breathing softly as she read her book in the corner of the room behind her. Ahhh… this was the time of day that was Tsuande's favorite. Just after school. Peace and quiet. It helped that it was a Friday, too.

Reveling slightly in the normally buzzing hall, not wanting to go back inside to grade papers, she heard a voice suddenly, sounding like it was coming down the stairs nearest her classroom. Now, who could that be? Most of the students had headed home already, to their land of video games and cable TV.

The voice got nearer and nearer until the body of a boy, no older than sixteen or seventeen, appeared at the bottom of the stairs, with a cell phone glued to his ear. The boy was a head taller than her at least, and had dark hair that glinted blue in the florescent light. His T-shirt was black and he had the same ripped up jeans of most alleged bad-boys here at Konoha High. Tsunade had never seen him before, which was odd. He appeared like a normal teenager in all contexts, but there seemed to be something about him that was a little more mature… She knew most of the student body at least by face, if not by name. It was easily discernable that she had never seen him before.

He certainly wasn't one of her medical science pupils…

_Must be new, _Tsunade thought with an internal shrug.

"No, mom, I don't want sushi for dinner… Yes, I know Itachi's not home yet… No, I don't know where he is….. Mom, I'd really rather not, he could be anywhere- hi, Dad…. Itachi has his own cell phone you know, did you think to call him?… Ugh… Yeah, whatever, I'm sorry for speaking disrespectfully…No, I already told mom I didn't want sushi… OK, fine…. No, I'm coming home right now… I'm walking out the door, I swear…OK… Yeah, don't forget to call Itachi. Bye." He hung up his silver cell phone with a quick twist of his fingers.

_Yeesh…, _Tsunade thought. _Over-bearing parents much?_

The boy walked by her without looking at her, an annoyed scowl on his face and a frown puckering between his dark brows. He all but stomped past her, his black binder, labeled 'geometry,' tucked safely underneath his muscular teenage arm.

_Yeah, definitely over-bearing. _Tsunade shrugged and turned back into her classroom to grade the seemingly endless pile of papers on her desk once more.

* * *

Later that night, Sakura plunked down at a barstool next to the enormous island in the middle of the massive restaurant kitchen and sighed heavily. Her hair was curled immaculately and her red dress was on, a sparkling shock of color compared to the silver of the kitchen.

Tatiana, their head chef, clucked her tongue disapprovingly. "Now, Sakura dahling, you mess yourself up before show! You vant Tatiana to fix you?" She waved a wooden spoon at her like one would wag a finger at a disobedient child.

"No, Tati. I'll straighten up, I promise." Sakura said, plopping her cheek into her palm and rolling her eyes as she did so. " Just give me a few minutes to chill out."

Satisfied with that answer, Tatiana went back to stirring cinnamon roll batter. Sakura sighed again, really not wanting to go onstage when she would rather just finish her vocab homework for med science and brood about a certain raven-haired boy over a tub of peanut-butter cup ice cream.

Tatiana stopped stirring again. "Sakura? Vhat is the matter, dahling? You seem…" Tatiana struggled to find the right word. "…upset. Is sumsting upsetting you?"

Sakura smiled tiredly at the kind old cook. "No, Tati. Just boy troubles… and I really don't want to sing tonight. That's all."

Tatiana raised an eyebrow. "Boy? Vhat boy?" She probed.

Sakura opened her mouth to spill everything about the arrogant son-of-a-bitch that teased her today, (Never mind that she was attracted to his arrogance….) when their production manager, Kenichi, popped his head in the swinging kitchen door.

"Sakura! There you are! I've been looking everywhere for you, girl!" Kenichi exclaimed, his voice abnormally high-pitched as usual. Kenichi was 22 years old, gay, and one of Sakura's favorite people. He was wearing his normal attire of black pants and a turtle-neck, with his glasses perched on his thin nose, ever-present clipboard in hand. His brown hair was ruffled as though he had run his fingers through it a thousand times already in anxiety. "Where have you _been_? We need you back-stage!" Kenichi snatched her bare upper arm and dragged her off the stool and unto her red-heeled feet, and began walking with her towards the door.

_Later!, _Sakura mouthed over her shoulder at Tatiana with a slight smile at Kenichi's antics.

Tatiana only smirked and rolled her eyes, all the while turning to stir the batter thoughtfully.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sasuke Uchiha was _not _a happy camper. He was currently in some random five-star restaurant, that supposedly had live entertainment, at a table with a red, velvet tablecloth and was sitting on a puffy, surprisingly comfortable chair in between his older brother Itachi and his CEO father Fugaku, with a nasty scowl on his face.

His father held similar pose, while Itachi spaced out by staring off at a corner of the high ceiling, and his mother talked animatedly in a mostly one-sided conversation with her two teenage sons and husband.

Upon returning home that afternoon, Sasuke had already been in a foul mood. His first day at school had not gone well after his teasing sessions during fifth period art with that cute Sakura girl, much to his chagrin. She was especially funny, he noted, when she was annoyed with him.

After art, he had gone to lunch and plunked down at an empty table with his hamburger and fries, hoping to eat in peace, when a blond kid, about his age, appeared out of nowhere and introduced himself as Naruto. Sasuke, not being one for many friends, simply replied with a 'My name's Sasuke' before aiming to take a bite of his lunch. Before he was able to do so, Naruto sat down to his right and said 'sweet' before mowing down his ramen noodles.

Now, this wasn't what bugged the crap out of Sasuke. True, he was more of a loner than anything, but he was up for a few friends just to hang out with. No, he was perfectly content to listen to his new buddy, Naruto, jabber at him through his food while he also contentedly ate his hamburger. He was even game for a few of Naruto's friends to come and sit with them. Most of them were on the football team and Sasuke was pretty cool with that because he personally liked football and was the quarterback at his old school.

What he wasn't so keen on, was the chick.

Sasuke had been in the middle of a conversation with the football team captain, Neji, about him trying out for the quarterback position since their initial one was out for the season due to a broken ankle, when a tall red-headed, bespectacled girl appeared out of nowhere and sat next to him.

Stopped abruptly in his sentence due to the distraction, Sasuke turned to face her with an eyebrow raised in slight annoyance.

By now, the table of football players had gone completely silent at the appearance of this girl.

Apparently, this girl had some balls.

She grinned at all the boys in turn before looking at Sasuke.

"Hi. My name's Karin. What's yours?" She cooed at Sasuke. _Oh, no fucking way… not this again. _This here was a scene that Sasuke had visited too many times before.

Sasuke _detested _fan girls. The only girlfriends he'd had were girls who were obsessed with his looks and what their supposed friends said behind their backs about them being together. They were air heads with no self-respect and they didn't like the music he did. Totally bogus. And so, the end result was, he usually ended up with random chicks he met at the rave or some place for a closet make-out session and that was as far as his relationships went. Still, the legion of girls that worshiped him creepily were heartbroken when he had to move with the rest of his family. He certainly wasn't. He was glad that he could get away from girls that had pined after him since kindergarten and go to a bigger school where there was more… variety.

So there was no effing way this girl was gonna ruin it for him on his first day.

But, before he could get a word in edgewise, Naruto came to his rescue.

"We _know_ what your name is bitch. What we _don't_ know is why you're sitting here. Go suck out some other dude's soul." From what Sasuke could gather this was shockingly harsh for Naruto, especially towards a girl.

Sasuke fully expected for this Karin girl to start blubbering and run away at Naruto's comments, but she merely narrowed her eyes at him.

"I can sit where I like, Naruto." She said sticking her nose up in the air. But, apparently this was just talk, as Karin got up anyway, scooting her chair noisily back as she did so. "Bye-bye, Sasuke-kun." She winked and sauntered off like a cat in heat.

To his credit, Sasuke tried very hard not to twitch. "What. The. Hell." He said, turning slowly to Naruto, who was wearing an uncharacteristic scowl. Shikamaru, the linebacker, was the one who answered.

"That's Karin. She the school succubus. Biggest bitch I've ever met. She was after the whole team at one point." He said chewing his roast-beef sandwich mildly, seemingly un-fazed by the encounter.

"Yup. She tackled me once." Neji confirmed. "I wasn't impressed by her intentions, which was to get in my pants, but, I did ask her if she played football because it was really good tackle. She never spoke to me after that." Neji took a bite of his apple, chewed and swallowed. "So, offend her femininity and she'll get off your back."

Sasuke nodded, still miffed, when another thought occurred to him. "I didn't tell her my name and yet she knew it already."

The teenage boys around the table did a collective shudder.

"That's creepy…" Sasuke said. His new friends agreed.

Upon getting home that afternoon, Sasuke was greeted by his huge black great dane, Raiden. Raiden had been his best friend ever since he had begged his mother to buy him for his sixth birthday. At that age, he had fully expected the dog to be a fiercely loyal guard dog, but, as it turned out, Raiden was a total goof. He insisted upon sleeping in the same bed with Sasuke, even though they were about the same size now, and drove his mother crazy by eating food out of Sasuke's plate, and laying across Sasuke's lap like an over-large cat whenever he sat down in the living room to watch TV.

Raiden had romped to the foyer, baying loudly all the way, when Sasuke opened the front door and announced he was home.

"Hey, buddy." Sasuke said, scratching the dog behind it's ears. He took off his backpack and tossed it into a corner by the front door, next to the coat rack. Already, he could hear his mother yelling at Itachi from the kitchen. Huh. So Itachi made it home after all.

Sasuke sighed. Since he had just got home, he really wanted a snack, so it seemed inevitable that he would have to go into the kitchen. Steeling his resolve, Sasuke walked down the marble hall of the foyer and stopped when he came to the living room on his right.

The French doors were open and he could see his father sprawled out on one of the pristine, white couches in his sweats and t-shirt, readers on, laptop open in his lap.

"Hey Dad." Sasuke said with a slight wave. His father grunted in response.

Shrugging, Sasuke continued down the foyer and then hung a right where he came to the swinging door that led to the kitchen. He heard his mother quite clearly now.

"Itachi Uchiha! Are you listening to me!? We are all going out to dinner as a family tonight. This family includes you, no matter how much you seem to detest that, young man. Therefore you are NOT going to your new friends' party and that's final!"

Sasuke tried very hard not to groan aloud.

"Mother," Itachi said calmly. "I'm eighteen years old. I'm a legal-"

"I don't give a damn if you're a legal adult! You are still in high school and still living under our roof and therefore play by _our _rules. Now. This discussion is over."

Sasuke heard his mother's heels clicking against the tile floor and she suddenly swung open the kitchen door, revealing to her youngest child her frazzled state.

As of late, Itachi had become quite the rebel. Or at least that's how Sasuke's parents saw it. How Sasuke saw it, was a completely different story.

Sasuke knew for a fact, that for the past three years his older brother had been getting stoned off his rocker every at least every Friday night.

What pissed him off was that his brother had sworn him into secrecy. Sasuke wasn't sure what made his mouth stay shut, but his brother certainly owed him. Especially for those times when Sasuke had been up at an un-godly hour with nothing but a flashlight and Raiden on a leash to go searching for him. And then, found him, as always, passed out in someone's basement or front yard of course.

So far, Itachi hadn't had some kind of overdose, but, there had been a few times involving opium, in which Sasuke had felt the initiative to call an ambulance, but it turned to be OK once Itachi woke up about eight hours later.

"Oh, hi honey!" Mikoto Uchiha greeted her son. Her hands instantly went to his head, smoothing out his messy hair. "So, listen. Since you said you didn't want sushi, I decided that we should check out that five-star Aya-san recommended to us last week. So that's were we're going tonight!" She smiled and put her hands on Sasuke's arms. Then she kissed his cheek and clicked her way upstairs, probably to go find something to wear.

Sasuke looked down at his dog. "Mothers…" he muttered. Raiden 'ruffed' slightly as if in agreement.

Sasuke then shook his head and walked into the kitchen.

There, he found his brother sitting at the island, brooding darkly and probably plotting how he was going to escape dinner tonight.

"Hey, man." Sasuke said cordially as he walked by him to the fridge. Itachi didn't answer. Not that Sasuke was expecting him to anyway.

Sasuke pulled out a gallon of cranberry juice and some left over steak and potatoes. Popping the potatoes into the microwave for himself, and feeding Raiden the slab of steak, Sasuke took a swig of juice right out of the container.

This was another thing that Sasuke's mother detested, even though both her sons and her husband did it daily, whether it was milk, or juice, or Mikoto's excellent kool-aid out the pitcher. (None of them were sure what she did to it to make it so good, but that stuff was addictive!)

Sasuke turned to Itachi once more, tired of hearing the dog mow down the steak like he was starving and said: "So… Mom picked a fight, huh?"

Itachi just blinked, still staring at the granite counter.

Sasuke sighed once more. God, his family was crazy.

And, so, upon finishing his snack of random potatoes and finishing his homework, Sasuke now found himself being irritated out of his mind in the middle of the damn restaurant.

They had only been there for fifteen minutes, and already Sasuke was ready to go home and put on the loudest, nastiest rap music he owned, because this was just ridiculous. And extremely frustrating. It wasn't that the people on stage were bad, no. In fact, the band who was currently onstage was pretty good at cover songs. No, what was ridiculous was the fact that his family was becoming more and more tense in their close proximity and neither his brother nor his father were speaking or listening to his poor mother. The most ridiculous part was probably the fact that as long as _he_ replied occasionally to what she was saying, Mikoto figured that _everyone_ at the table was listening.

Which, obviously, was not the case.

Sasuke had to grit his teeth in order to keep from punching his brother. His brother had really hurt their mother by ignoring their family in the last couple months.

Even though Sasuke was sworn to secrecy of his brother's drug abuse, that didn't mean he liked the fact that he was growing more and more distant with each passing year.

Some time ago, he had been told that he behaved a lot more mature than the average sixteen-year-old. This somewhat disturbed him because he knew exactly as to why that was. It was picking up after his older brother's mess. Covering his ass when no one else would. Or could, for that matter.

Again, Sasuke had no idea what compelled him into doing such things for Itachi, but he did them all the same, grumbles included.

A waitress about twenty-years-old appeared at their table, red menus in hand, and gave Itachi a suggestive smile, which, of course, he didn't notice, seeing as he was still staring at that damn corner of the ceiling.

Sasuke picked up his menu and began peruse the dinner options and settled almost immediately on spaghetti with tomato sauce. When he announced to his mother what he was ordering and asked her politely what she was getting, she beamed and told him she wasn't decided.

Sasuke sighed for probably the millionth time that day. He then went back to staring at the menu without really seeing it, waiting for this night to be over.

* * *

Sakura checked her make-up in the lighted mirror for probably the millionth time that night.

She could hear Kenichi in the background of the back-stage/dressing room where she sat, commending the guy who sang the song by Creed just moments before.

Tonight, her mother had wanted her to sing 'Fighter' by Christina Aguilera, but, since she wasn't here, Sakura and Kenichi had plotted against her by choosing a song that was more suited to Sakura. Therefore Sakura would NOT be wearing the bright red heels that her mother picked out for her, but instead going barefoot and wearing her red tube dress. And, she was also not dancing while she sang, like she usually did when her mother was here, but instead sitting on a banged-up stool in the middle of the stage.

Suddenly, Kenichi's head appeared next to hers in the mirror. "You're on in five, sweetie! Break a leg."

Sakura gave him a brave smile and said thanks as he walked away, talking into his ear-piece. She then turned and looked into the mirror once more, puffing a stray strand of hair out of her face with another sigh and then got up to retrieve her stool.

* * *

Sasuke was about ready to storm out of the restaurant and stomp his way home. He was at the end of his rope. His father and brother looked exactly the same as they had ten minutes ago when the waitress had picked up their menus and taken their orders, while Sasuke tried not to bolt.

Suddenly, the guy in the tux that had been announcing people the whole night appeared on stage again. "And now," He said dramatically. "I give you the highlight of tonight's entertainment! Ms. Sakura Haruno singing Take a Bow! Give it up for the lovely lady!"

A round of applause echoed throughout the dining hall.

Sasuke's thoughts of throwing a fit were temporarily dispelled as he heard the next girl's name. _Sakura Haruno….where have I heard that before…? _

The spotlight came on in the center of the stage. Since they had seats up front, Sasuke could clearly see the barefoot girl pad her way to center stage from the left, a stool in her hand. The girl was tilted away from the audience as she set her stool down in the spotlight. She then sat on it and faced the audience with a beautiful smile.

Sasuke then stood up in shock, both palms on the table, staring straight at the pink-haired girl on stage.

"_Holy fucking crap_." Sasuke whispered. He then sat down again, barely registering the fact that his family was staring at him like he had grown a second head.

"Sasuke…" His mother said worriedly. "Honey, are you alright?"

"Yeah, mom. Fine." Sasuke mumbled distractedly, totally focused on Sakura Haruno, the girl he'd playfully teased earlier that day.

Meanwhile, his mind raced:

_What is she doing here? She can sing? How good? Wow, she looks good. Can she see me? _

Normally, Sasuke wouldn't have bothered with thoughts such as these, being one to detest girls, but, Sakura had completely paralyzed him with her appearance on the massive stage before him.

Sakura took the microphone from Akirin, and said: "Hey! How's everyone tonight?"

Some applause echoed throughout the hall.

"Great! I'm going to sing Take a Bow for you tonight, originally performed by Rihanna on her new album, _Good girl, Gone bad._"

The music came on. Sakura took a deep breath and began to sing.

Had Sasuke been a lesser man, his jaw would've hit the floor. Her vocals were perfect. The pitch excellent. She was a siren.

_Oh my god…._

Suddenly, Sakura stood up and walked forward on the stage moving gracefully with the song. When she reached the end of the stage, she smiled as she sang.

Sasuke swore his eyes were the size of tennis balls by now, but they seemed to get wider when he watched her necklace, a locket, slide off her neck and bounce off the edge of the stage, onto their dinner table, and landed, gracefully into his glass of water.

Sasuke and the rest of his family stopped in their tracks and stared at the tiny, silver pendant that was currently sinking, through the ice, to the bottom of the crystal glass. Sasuke slowly tore his eyes away from the necklace and stared up at Sakura onstage.

She, for all purposes, appeared not to notice that her necklace was gone and continued singing in her beautiful voice. The song came to an end, and Sakura bowed prettily and then snatched up her stool and exited the stage.

Leaving Sasuke wondering what the hell just happened.

* * *


End file.
